Aerial lift buckets, sometimes referred to in the art as aerial lift baskets, are well known to the art for facilitating a workman's performance of work operation at elevated heights such as, for example, the installation and repair of electrical transmission lines or the trimming of trees around electrical transmission lines. In the performance of such work operations, there exists the constant danger of unwanted transmission of electrical current through the workman's body. To prevent this, as is also well known in the art, aerial lift buckets or baskets typically are made of electrically non-conductive material such as fiberglass, or fiberglass reinforced plastic, for insulation and for structural rigidity and wear. As a further safeguard, and as also known in the art, it is standard practice to employ a removable bucket liner of a non-conductive plastic material such as polyethylene which can be easily removed for periodic testing to confirm its insulative or dielectric properties. While similar tests can be performed on the aerial lift bucket or basket proper, the testing equipment normally cannot be reached by the aerial lift bucket trucks and it is a great deal simpler and easier to test only the bucket liners; defective bucket liners as contrasted with the more expensive aerial lift buckets or baskets are easily and cheaply replaced. Typical prior art aerial lift buckets or baskets, and liners, are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,005,512 issued Oct. 24, 1981 to R.R. Vogan (note outside aerial lift bucket or basket 23 of FIG. 2 and inside bucket liner 24 of FIG. 5); and in U.S. Pat. No. 3,404,751 issued October 8, 1968 to B.F. Nosworthy (note outside bucket or basket liner 14 and inside bucket liner 28 of FIG. 2).
Since, as noted, aerial lift buckets or baskets and bucket liners are typically made of fiberglass reinforced plastic or plastic, and since a workman residing in the bucket or liner typically wears heavy work shoes with rough soles, and since debris produced by the workman's work operations typically falls inside of and to the bottom of bucket or liner where it is ground into the bottom of the bucket or liner by the workman's shoes upon moving about in the bucket or liner, scuffing of the inside bottom of the bucket liner is produced which, as known, can wear a hole in the bottom of the bucket or liner, or at least produce small openings therein, which impair and even destroy the insulating or non-conductive quality of the bucket or liner. Accordingly, there exists a need in the aerial lift bucket art for apparatus for preventing such scuffing and destruction or impairment of the insulating or non-electrical conductive quality of the bucket or liner.
As is still further known in the art, for safety reasons, namely to reduce the likelihood that a workman working in the aerial lift bucket will inadvertently fall out while performing work functions including leaning out of the bucket, the depth of the aerial lift bucket, and hence the depth of an inserted bucket liner if provided, is such that a workman of average height will stand in the aerial lift bucket substantially up to his waist, or slightly above. This depth, as is further known to the art, makes it difficult for the workman to climb out of the aerial lift bucket both due to its depth and due to the fact that since the aerial lift bucket, and liner if provided, are made of a plastic, the inside surfaces of the bucket or liner are smooth providing no gripping surface to facilitate climbing out. Aerial lift buckets and bucket liners provided with steps for facilitating climbing out of a workman are known to the prior art, such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,169,602 to L. L. Myers issued Feb. 16, 1965; U.S. Pat. No. 3,396,814 to E.V. Garnett issued Aug. 13, 1968; U.S. Pat. No. 3,404,751 to B. F. Nosworthy issued Oct. 8, 1968; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,625,305 to Otto M. Mueller et al. issued Dec. 7, 1971. However, such prior art bucket liners and aerial lift buckets are not economically advantageous or desirable due to their difficulty, and thereby attendant expensiveness, of manufacture. Accordingly, there exists a need in the art for a less expensive apparatus for facilitating a workman's climbing out of an aerial lift bucket or bucket liner if provided.